Listening prayer

That thing you said Si about prayer being more about listening than saying - that makes a lot of sense.

I once read a whole book on listening prayer. I remember it being brilliant but suggesting quite a time-consuming method of ensuring that one was praying in a listening manner - something to do with a ring-binder and writing lots down I seem to recall...

I think it's more helpful to use the simple structure of the 'Jesus' prayer or our 'God be' prayer like you suggest.

I'm currently reading another John O'Donohue book - Anam Cara - (which translates as 'soul friend'). It has a lot of lovely illustrations of how Celtic Christians did things like prayer - just the sort of thing we love at 'monks'. I might have to bring it along on Monday...

In the meantime. I'm going to keep praying and listening and drifting and listening and soaking and praying and thinking and listening. Hopefully some sort of rhythm will emerge out of the melange of meditation. One day.

Esther